May
6, 2002, 12:00
PM PDT (FTW) -- Britt Snider, the retired CIA
inspector general who had been chosen to head the Joint
Senate-House Committee investigation into the attacks of
9-11, resigned suddenly on April 30. Various press reports
offer mixed and vague explanations for the resignation that
is certain to delay any investigation into the attacks of
Sept. 11. The Associated Press reported Sniderís resignation
was triggered by a personnel decision that had angered the
ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,
Arkansas Republican Richard Shelby. The New York Times said
Snider had resigned under pressure. In a lengthier story,
the Los Angeles Times reported some on the panel feared
Snider, who retired as CIA IG last year, would go soft on
his old friend, Director of Central Intelligence George
Tenet and possibly protect colleagues at the CIA.

Snider is no stranger to controversy. In
July 1998, after being appointed by President Clinton, he
assumed the CIA IG post. In that capacity he supervised
the Oct. 8, 1998
release of an explosive report prepared by his predecessor,
Frederick Hitz, who now holds the Goldman Sachs intelligence
chair at Princeton. That report,
[Volume II of the IGís investigation into "Allegations
of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking
To The United States" (96-0143-IG)], which examined
CIAís connection to drug trafficking during the Contra war
of the 1980s, is perhaps the single most incriminating document
ever released by the CIA. Wrapped inside innocuous cover
letters and executive summaries, its pages contain hundreds
of admissions of criminal acts by the Agency in protecting
and facilitating drug trafficking operations. The report
also describes how CIA personnel regularly lied to Congress
and briefed then-Vice President George Bush on ways to misdirect
congressional investigations.

Until a replacement is named, Sniderís
deputy, Rick Cinquegrana, will serve as head of the investigative
staff which now numbers about 30. Cinquegrana is not much
of an improvement. Volume II reports that Cinquegrana, while
serving as the Justice Departmentís deputy counsel for intelligence
policy, was the point-man in 1981 negotiations for a Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) between then-Attorney General William
French-Smith and CIA director William Casey, which told
the CIA it no longer had to report drug trafficking by any
employees who were not officers in the Agency. This writer
has used the letter of transmittal for the MOU in lectures
around the country to demonstrate criminal complicity on
the part of the Agency in the drug trade. It contains the
sentence, "In light of these provisions, and in view
of the fine cooperation the Drug Enforcement Administration
has received from CIA, no formal requirement regarding the
reporting of narcotics violation has been included in these
procedures."

Volume II, which has never been fully or
publicly examined by Congress, was made public on the CIAís
website just one hour after Henry Hydeís House Judiciary
Committee began the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

As the House Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence (HPSCI) closed down their secret, closed-door
investigations into CIA drug trafficking in May 2000, several
mysterious deaths followed. First the staff director, John
Millis, was the victim of an alleged suicide in June. Then
in November, Charles Ruff, Bill Clintonís point man on the
impeachment and reported liaison on the drug investigation,
accidentally died in his shower. Julian Dixon, the African-American
ranking member of HPSCI died of a sudden heart attack just
weeks later.

These are deep waters. Sniderís sudden
departure may be a reflection of more trouble yet to come.
Cinquegrana is definitely not the man to be trusted with
oversight of this investigation. But until the American
people can have confidence in an open investigation with
some degree of transparency, we might we look forward to
and even expect more delays and "mysterious" developments.